Alice's Revenge
by Rio Morgan
Summary: Alice goes back to Wonderland to ger revenge.....mwahahahahaha
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: I do not own Alice in Wonderland or the video game or play it was inspired from.  
  
This is kind of convoluted and is rated for the extreme violent measures Alice takes. Be kind, it's my first fic. All flames will be roasted by my own ;) (  
  
I am not sadistic; this was inspired partly by a video game and a theatrical production of Alice. The order of the victims and some of the references are all based on the play and not the actual movie but since Alice is more associated with Disney I put it here. I also played with the age of Alice's sister and yes I gave her my name but it's not really my name. I know that might not make much sense now but the story has a strange twist to the end that involves my own characters. If you don't like the idea don't read it. Don't say I didn't warn 'ya! Happy reading.  
  
Alice's Revenge  
  
I. Alice Decides  
  
They really do deserve it, she thought. After all, they did try to kill me. Alice smoothed her blue dress and pinafore as she sat up. The sun streamed down on her as she lay in the field. Her blonde hair glinted in the sun. Oh, at the end they all played lovey dovey and hugged me, said they would miss me. But it was all a sham. Who goes from wanting to chop your head off one minute and then loving you the next? No one but psychopaths pretending so that they could get you once your back was turned. Luckily she'd left before they'd had a chance. And of course they'd given her all that crap about how she couldn't come back but she figured it was a lie. Like all their other lies. They claimed they helped her to grow up, but that was a lie to. She was the same naive girl that she was when she came in after she left. Alice had done a lot of growing up this past year, none of it to do with Wonderland, but she supposed she could fool them enough to make them think she needed a second dose, that she was still a child. It was a year to the day. Her birthday again. She'd actually been planning this for quite some time. Even the Cheshire Cat (she couldn't believe she had used the stupid "Chessy" moniker) had been cruel and led her on. She had felt strange and unhappy all through the party she'd been so eager to return to. They'd ruined her birthday! At night she dreamed of the Queen of Hearts, shouting "OFF WITH HER HEAD!"  
  
Finally Alice decided she needed closure. At first she though of therapy for her traumatizing experience, and even went so far as to talk to a psychiatrist once. He had seemed to believe her, but later she overheard him talking to her parents. He said that foolish flights of fancy were not his concern and they needed to stop wasting his time with childish fantasies. If Alice ever had any real problems they could contact him. Alice was infuriated but she couldn't do anything. He was, after all, an adult and most adults thought all young people made up anything that sound out of the ordinary.  
  
She'd tried confiding in her best friend, Jane, one Saturday night. At first Jane had laughed, said it was a fantastic story and would Alice be submitting it to a magazine or contest? Alice remembered well the scene: sitting on her bed in her pretty pink and white bedroom, desperately trying to explain to Jane that her story was real and that she hadn't made it up for some idiotic contest in a magazine. Jane, her face slowly filling with incredulity as she realized that Alice wasn't kidding. When this finally and completely dawned on her Jane became nervous and said she had to get home her mother would be worried. "But you're spending the night, you don't have to go home!" Alice wailed with dismay. Jane struggled for an explanation "Well, you see, I have a lot to do that I forgot about so I guess I'll have to take a rain check." "You don't believe me!" Alice said, her voice a mixture of anger, hurt, and disappointment. "Why of course I do. You're my best friend why wouldn't I believe you?" Jane said in the exact tone of voice that makes you realize that the person didn't believe you in the slightest and thought you were stark raving mad. Alice threw herself face first onto the bed and started crying her eyes out while Jane made a quick exit. Alice tried to call her but Jane was sleeping or Jane was out, etc. That Monday, when she returned to school Jane had found a new best friend and none of her friends would talk to her. No one would sit with her and many people pointed and whispered.  
  
Angry and hurt, Alice decided to get revenge on Wonderland. It was their fault! They'd ruined her life! To get revenge she figured the conditions would have to be the same as before. Therefore she had recanted her story. She'd cornered Jane and explained to her that she'd actually had wrote the story for a contest and as a joke and test of her acting skills decided to try and convince people it was true. Jane seemed skeptical but she accepted the story and soon life was almost back to normal. Except people still treated her like a dangerous lunatic if she even looked odd. Still, her friends accepted the invitation to her birthday party. The same ones as last year. Her parents thought it a strange request when she insisted on having the exact same type of cake and decorations, party games, times, etc. as the year before. Alice was tempted to say she wanted the exact same presents as well but her parents were worrying enough about her what with all her strange behavior this past year. Still, they decided to humor their daughter in the hopes that whatever phase she was in she would get out of it real fast. Now all was in place and it was almost time. It was 3:30. She needed to play a game of cards with her sister and then fall asleep. Maybe when she woke up she could find the rabbit hole that she'd been looking for since her last birthday. Alice frowned. Oddly enough she didn't remember her sister Rio at all, except for last year when they'd played cards out here in the field. It was almost like she didn't have a sister. It wasn't like Rio was all that older than her, she was in fact only 17 and Alice was turning 13 today. Yet she had no memories of Rio except of on her birthday. Maybe this Wonderland thing really was making her crazy. She shook her head and then stood up. Adjusting her headband and smoothing her skirt she then made sure her white tights had no grass stains. Everything must be perfect for her to be able to return. She was even going to use the same cards and play the same game. She gave herself and the place where she had staked out for cards one last once over. Then she raced off through the tall grass and wild flowers to see if her sister wanted to play a game of cards. 


	2. The Downfall of the White Rabbit

II. The Downfall of the White Rabbit  
  
So warm..the sun..a slow smile of satisfaction spread across Alice's face as she watched the cards in Rio's hands droop and her eyes close as she slid down into the grass. Alice was mildly aware of the same thing happening to her. Then sleep took her and for a while all was quiet. Suddenly Alice was awakened by the sound of running feet. Yawning, Alice sat up and stretched. Then she looked for the owner of said feet. A small animal in ridiculous looking Renaissance-like clothing covered in red hearts ran by her to a rather large tree that Alice hadn't noticed before. Or hadn't noticed since last year. It was the white rabbit! The one who'd gotten her into all this. The one who'd woken her up the first time, and roused her curiosity because of the fact that most rabbits don't wear clothes or carry trumpets. Alice's face, at first simply excited looking at her plan working, now held a sadistic grin. He'd be the first one to pay, that simpering loser.  
  
Like before he raced on without noticing her until he reached the tree. Alice had stood up by now and started to walk after him. No more scampering, she had an hour and they were in her clutches now. The rabbit turned his head as he started climbing into the rabbit hole and noticed her. "You again? Can't you just grow up?" He groused. He regained his composure; he had been expecting to lure some other silly little girl down the hole. Then he noticed something that disturbed him even more. "Aren't you going to chase me?" A puzzled expression rose to his face. This wasn't the way it was supposed to happen, and certainly she was not supposed to go through this twice. When his questions evoked no response, he started getting even more nervous. Silly little girls did not act this way. And that look on her face.. somehow these actions scared him more than the Queen. The Queen was so over the top, she screamed and shouted and made threats. Yet in the end she ended up doing nothing. Alice's actions were quiet and determined. The look on her face was not that of a three year old having a temper tantrum, not of a silly young girl. The look she had was adult-like, but still not that of a well-balanced, responsible individual. She had the look of a demented psychopath, unstable and willing to do things that no little girl or normal adult would consider even for a moment.  
  
Half-crazed with fear the White Rabbit flew down the rabbit hole at three times his normal speed; so fast in fact that he tripped over himself and fell so fast and so out of control that he landed in a crumpled, bruised heap at the bottom. Still terror-filled but believing that he was safe for the moment, he slowly tried to sit up and assess the damage. He wiped his face and noticed that his nose was bleeding. One ear was bent and his clothes were ripped up. Everything felt bruised. His right leg burned like fire. Gingerly he tried to move it and it felt like someone had covered his leg in gasoline and blowtorched it. Yep, it was broken alright, no doubt about it. Now he had no idea what he was going to do. How could he walk, let alone run, when his right leg was out of commission? Just then he heard a soft, swish swish sound. Alarmed he looked up, but saw nothing. Now his fear returned with a vengeance. He had to get out of here, find refuge. Then he could worry about his leg. Right now the Queen would have to wait. Then he started. What a strange thought, one he had never thought he'd have. Even if the Queen never really did execute anyone no one liked crossing her either. Still, he had to get out of there and there was no point thinking about that now if he wanted to be around to be yelled at by the Queen. Curiouser and curiouser this day was becoming. He heard the sound again and that got him going. He crawled slowly towards some bushes, his only hope for now.  
  
When he heard the gentle swish swish a third time he had to look up. His eyes become round, wide, and panic filled. She was flying down the rabbit hole at top speed, staying directly in the center, not bashing into things as he had done. Most frightening of all was the small knife she held in her teeth and the crazed look in her eye. She must have had the knife hidden in the pocket of her apron, there was no other explanation he could think of for the sudden appearance of the knife. He struggled, trying to run, even with his broken leg. The panic had blocked out the pain. Alice landed behind him with an audible thwmp. The knife was out of her mouth and into her hand as she landed and she started walking slowly towards him. He scrambled as fast as he could toward the bushes. He had no real plans now, didn't know whether or not he'd be protected by the bush or just sentencing himself to death. His mind had gone blank seconds after he saw her and the knife falling. When she hit the ground a sort of explosion went off in his head and his only thoughts were to get away, Get Away, GET AWAY!!! His mind screamed at him and he didn't realize he was also screaming aloud. A wordless, mindless, panic-stricken scream. A hand roughly grabbed him by the ears and swung his squirming body into the air. His scream turned into a high, keening whine but at the sound of her voice he froze in terror. "Well, it looks as if I've caught a rabbit." Her voice was eerily calm, yet it held a note that suggested she was not quite sane. "Whatever shall I do with it?" She seemed to think, and for a moment she looked normal. He almost started to hope that this whole thing was a dreadful mistake, that she simply was coming to thank wonderland for making her an adult and that his imagination had cooked up the rest. From the shock of her return, yes of course that must be it. He actually started to calm down before the thought was squashed like a bug is under the heel of black patent leather shoes. "Why, I know" she said, the odd note back in her voice, "I'll GUT IT!" With these words shouted she pulled back the hand with the knife. He started screaming again only to have it turn into a sort of mewling noise as she plunged the knife into his stomach and slit him open. "You always must gut and skin a rabbit before cooking and eating it." Alice said, sounding very detached from herself. Her eyes were wild and crazy. The White Rabbit neither saw nor heard her, he would no longer pull a large pocket watch out and shout, "I'm late! For a very important date!" He was dead, and so was the annoying rhyme. Alice, her hands and arms covered with blood, cut off one of his feet and then dropped the rest on the ground. She wiped the blood on the knife off onto her apron and then stuck it back into her pocket. "A lucky rabbits foot." She said in the same, detached way, and then put the foot in her pocket and continued on her way. There were others who needed to pay for what they had done too her. 


	3. Squashing a Bug

III. Squashing a Bug  
  
Alice wandered into the forest, just like last time. Only she didn't really remember that, it was more instinct. At this moment in time her mind was far away from what her body was doing. She was thinking of the White Rabbit. The pathetic fool had practically had a heart attack before she'd gotten to him. He always was a nervous little fellow. Well I bet he's sorry he enticed me down the rabbit hole now! She thought. The thought struck her as funny and she started to laugh, a little chortle at first, which then grew and grew to become full out insane maniacal laughter. Ahhhhh revenge certainly was sweet. And it could only get better from here. She decided to save the Queen for last; it certainly would be satisfying to see the look on the old hag's face when she realized no one was around to help her and she could scream all she wanted. No one would hear her.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Just a few minutes away, sitting on a humongous toadstool, was a caterpillar. He was smoking some extremely good pot. He had been very happy and mellow, as he always was while puffing at his bong. Because of his good mood he had been in his skin had been a wonderful, pinkish color. Unfortunately, and unknown voice had spoiled his mood. Not ten seconds ago loud, crazy laughter had echoed through the forest and reached his ears. It was frightening, because of it's proximity and it's psychotic sound. Soon his shade changed from that lovely, pinkish color to a pale, sickly yellow. The drugs amplified his mood and soon he was imagining murders everywhere. If he hadn't been stoned he would've thought what he was doing was weird, because no one was ever really killed in Wonderland, it was all pretend. At least that's how it always had been since he could remember.  
  
He curled up on his toadstool and tried to look everywhere at once. Suddenly a sound came from behind him, like the sound of feet approaching. He whirled around and was shocked at what he saw. It was Alice, walking slowly down the path. He vaguely remembered her from a year ago. He also realized that if she had been here before than there was no way she could be here now. Was he just having a bad trip? His vision wasn't at its best but as she got closer his half-shut eyes opened wide with shock. Her hands, arms, and dress were covered in blood. She had a scary grin on her face, one that made it look like if you reached out your hand it'd fly up and bite it off. Her eyes, like his before, were half closed and her hair was mussed with little splotches of blood littering it. There were some chunks of something he couldn't make out on her dress and there was something sticking out of her pocket. It was also extremely bloody. His eyes were open wider than they had ever been in his life and he didn't even notice when he dropped his bong. Frozen, he watched her silent approach.  
  
Alice had noticed the caterpillar long before he had seen her. He was hard to miss, a large fat bug turning colors and getting high sitting on magic mushroom. There was nothing subtle about that. The caterpillar ruined her good mood, as usual. He was simply awful in the past, always talking strange and acting so high and mighty. She always felt small and insignificant around him. Plus he'd started that drug habit. It was the only thing that had made her feel good around him so she thought it might help her when times were tough at home. She'd been made to go to rehab in January, after her parents caught her smoking a joint in her bedroom after an argument. All her friends thought she had gotten real sick and gone to Florida to recover. It had all ended with her getting clean and her parents getting lots of bills and added stress plus anger management courses. That was before she'd tried to confide to anyone about Wonderland so unfortunately any adults she told that knew about it were likely to think it had been a trip and nothing more. Now just the sight of him brought her blood to a boil.  
  
She slowly ambled over to the mushroom. Looking up she realized that even with a jump she'd never reach him. Not one to give up easily she glanced around the surrounding trees to see if there might be anything she could use to get to him. A rope or vine perhaps, but then again she might not be able to convince him to keep it up there. Her knife was too small to cut through the thick trunk of the magic mushroom. Or was it a toadstool? Whatever, that was not the important thing at the moment. There was a rustle in branches and she noticed the tons of different kinds of birds that were flying around in the woods. She had been so intent on her thoughts earlier that she hadn't realized that they were there. They weren't birds a person would find in a normal forest; rather they were bizarre creations. Some had umbrella heads, others had bottle necks and some had axes for beaks. Axes for beaks! That was it. Now how was she going to get ahold of one of the stupid creatures? She thought about coaxing it with something to eat, but what did she have to offer it? She had just decided to take off her apron and try to catch one and smother it when she felt something in her pocket. The rabbits paw! She pulled it out and advanced on the bird.  
  
Meanwhile the caterpillar just watched. He was too afraid to get down, and besides he'd been up there all his life so he wasn't quite sure how to get down anyways. Plus he was still stoned.  
  
Alice advanced slowly to one of the birds, holding the rabbit's foot out in front of her and making soothing noises. It wasn't all that bright and it didn't take long for it to come over and investigate this. Quickly Alice grabbed it and slammed it hard against the ground, disorienting it. She put her right foot on its body and grabbed the bird by its neck with her left hand. She stretched it was long as she could and then whipped out her knife with the right hand. Then she sawed and hacked away at it with all her might until the head came off. She waited a few minutes, unsure of how long it took for rigor mortis to set in. This was Wonderland, after all. You could stretch a birds neck and have it stay that way but there may or may not be rigor mortis and when you could never tell. She was in luck though; when she picked up her makeshift axe it was as stiff as a board.  
  
She returned to the caterpillar and the mushroom/toadstool. Spacing her feet shoulder width apart she started to chop. If this had been anywhere but Wonderland and if it had been any 13 year old but the homicidal Alice it would've been hard work. But as this was Wonderland and this was homicidal Alice it took only a minute or too before it came crashing down. There was a loud boom. The caterpillar had waited the entire time while she chopped. He figured there was really no escape unless he turned into a butterfly and there wasn't enough time for him to do that. It was easy for him to accept anyway, he was still stoned. When it fell over he came with it, landing with half of him lying on the forest ground and the other half, the back half, squashed by the toadstool. Or was it a mushroom? At this point in time even he didn't know. Alice started to walk over to him, then saw his bong. She stopped momentarily to pick it up and then continued toward him. She felt a rage bubbling up inside her. The caterpillar turned and looked at her, he was pretty out of it. He opened his mouth and stared in slack-jawed wonder as she approached. At first he thought she was going to hack him with the axe. Instead she raised the bong, and shoved it into his mouth, out the back of his skull, and into the ground, effectively pinning him. He was still slightly alive as she picked up the axe; she had dropped it when she nailed him with the bong. Raising it high over her head she screamed "GO TO HELL YOU DRUG DEALING SMUG SON OF A BITCH!" WHACK! Again and again she raised the axe and brought it down again. When she was finished, some time later, he was a mess of chopped up parts and bug juice. She straightened up and and wiped the sweat away. She needed to catch her breath. In the distance she heard a loud commotion followed by sudden quiet. Ahhh, the Duchess and her nasty cook. And one mustn't forget that baby pig. This would serve well as a message to the Queen if the Duchess were the next to go. Alice tossed her head back and giggled as she set off again down the trail. This was going to be fun. 


	4. And

IV. And "Baby" Makes 5  
  
"PIG!!!!!" A set of dishes came flying across the room and shattered against the wall. There was a clattering of pans and then the Cook shook more pepper into the soup. She tasted it. "MORE PEPPER!" The Duchess was too busy shaking the small bundle in her arms to notice what her cook was doing with her soup. "PIG!!!!" She shouted again, shaking the bundle even harder. A new bunch of dishes came sailing at them, crashing into the wall and floor. The bundle, which looked suspiciously like a baby wrapped in a blanket, started to make crying noises. Then it oinked loudly. "PIG!" The Duchess shrieked.  
  
The bundle came a little undone and the piglet stuck its tiny head out. He was used to this shabby treatment so he wasn't all that upset. There was always a ruckus at the home of the Duchess. Her Cook was incredibly bad tempered and was forever throwing dishes and clanking the pans and making stews so full of pepper that they were inedible. The Duchess liked to wrap up piglets as if they were babies and then shake them while screaming at the top of her lungs that they were pigs. Didn't she realize that they knew that? No one asked her to do that. The piglets usually saw her coming and took off. The one she caught would heave an exasperated sigh and submit his or herself to an entire day and night of being the Duchess's "baby." The next morning the piglet was released into the yard and the chase began anew. "MORE PEPPER!" Clank clank clink clank. "Carrots and.PEPPER!" "PIG!!!!!!!" CRASH! With all that noise and commotion it was no wonder that they didn't hear Alice sneaking up on them.  
  
* * *  
  
Alice knew she'd take them by surprise, the fools made so much noise that everyone knew where they were and what they were doing but they didn't know where anyone was let alone what they were doing. The Duchess! The thought of her made her fume. She was always talking in morals, often that made no sense to Alice and made her feel stupid. And her Cook was so nasty, she hit Alice with those plates she always threw and the brat was always shaking pepper and making her sneeze. I bet they both felt so smart when they tricked me into thinking that stupid pig was a baby Alice thought angrily. That gross little porker, she'd make bacon and sausages outta him.  
  
Alice grinned sadistically and reached into her pocket for the unfortunate White Rabbit's lucky foot. Her grin turned into a frown of dismay as she realized it was not there. Only the knife was there. What had happened to it? Alice strained her brain, trying to remember. The Axe! Of course! She'd used it to lure the bird! She must have dropped it when she caught the bird and then simply left it there and forgot about it. Alice briefly entertained the idea of going back, but she decided to press on. The Duchess need shutting up and so did the Cook. Alice came upon the Duchess's grand home. Alice had never been in the other rooms; the Duchess and the Cook spent almost all their time in the kitchen. Alice chuckled maliciously. It really would surprise the old birds if she entered the kitchen through another part of the house. Alice wondered if they even knew the rest of the house was there.  
  
She entered by the front door and was greeted by a sight that proved that they definitely spent too much time in the kitchen. Alice supposed there had been furniture once. It probably had been grand. But now it seemed like a jungle, with grass, plants, and even small trees growing up through the floor and covering the walls. It was like she was still in the forest. Alice had expected a hard time finding the kitchen but now it seemed impossible. Nonsense, she told herself, nothing is impossible in Wonderland. She looked around the room. It was a large hall with a domed top. There was a staircase in the center that led to upstairs. The hall obviously took up the most of the ground floor. Alice knew that the kitchen was on the ground floor. There were probably doors around the wall and the door to the kitchen was among them. Alice shouldered her axe and walked over to the west side of the building, which was where the kitchen had been before. There must be a door over here somewhere she mused. After a few moments of careful consideration she decided to make things easier on herself. She raised the axe and started slashing furiously at the vines and various other forms of growth on the walls. Mostly she heard ringing stone, but just as she was about to give up she heard the dull thwack as her axe hit the wood of a door. She stopped momentarily to see if she'd been heard but her fears were unfounded. The shouting and banging continued on inside uninterrupted. The sadistic grin on her face widened and she opened the door.  
  
* * * *  
  
As fate would have it, the Duchess was standing right before the door, which hadn't been opened in years. Alice had been right, the Duchess and the Cook had forgotten all about the rest of the house. When the door opened the Cook had been about to throw another set of dishes. The look on her face when she saw Alice, all bloody and crazy looking, was priceless. One of pure shock. Her mouth hung open, the hand with the plate stopped in mid-swing, and her other hand (which had been shaking pepper into the stew) ceased movement and the pepper fell from her hand. The Duchess was in the middle of shaking the piglet and screaming. Alice, who'd left the axe in the door, quickly drew her knife. In two steps she was behind the still unaware Duchess. Alice reached her arm around the Duchess with one arm and held her while the one with the knife reached around and slashed her throat. The Duchess's screams of "PIG!!!" Turned into a gurgle and her eyes went wide with shock. She dropped the bundle and the pig ran squealing across the room and struggled to get out the door to the outside. He wasn't succeeding. The Duchess seemed to be trying to speak. Alice almost thought she heard her mumble "And the moral of that is." But it had to have been her imagination. Alice stuck the knife into the Duchess's eye. The Duchess gurgled what might have been a scream. The Cook, still staring in horror, took a few tentative steps back. Alice dragged the Duchess back toward the door. It was easy, she was practically limp and she didn't weigh much. Alice pulled the axe out of the door and then pushed the Duchess forward. As she was about to fall Alice gripped the axe like a bat and swung, neatly chopping off the Duchess's head with one blow. Her body fell and her head, still wide eyed and shocked, fell into the pot of peppery soup. It bobbed there a few times, like a cork off a wine bottle casually thrown into a body of water. Then it sunk to the bottom of the pot like the Titanic going down, her mouth open and filling with the soup.  
  
The Cook stared into the pot, horrified, her jaw working up and down as if she was trying to speak. The room was silent, even the pig stopped squealing. He sat in front of the door, his beady little eyes surveying the scene. The cook found her voice. "You..You..You stay away!" Alice laughed a bitter, hateful laugh. "Shut up you old sow." She said as she advanced. The Cook backed up even further, until she was against the wall. As soon as Alice reached the soup she spun and tried to make it to the door. Alice picked up the heavy, boiling pot of soup and flung it over the Cook long before she reached the door. The pig started squealing and scratching at the door again. The Cook screamed "It burns!!" She tried to stumble toward Alice but she slipped on the soup on the floor and fell. Alice picked up the pepper and dumped the entire thing into the cooks open screaming mouth. The Cooks eyes, which had been closed after being splashed with the soup, opened wide again. She was about to spit the pepper out of her mouth but Alice held it shut and she started to choke. She struggled against Alice but to no avail. Alice pinched her nose shut as well. After a few minutes it was all over. Alice stood up and then saw the pig, which had stopped squealing and was regarding her carefully. Alice got slowly to her feet. They stared at each other for a few moments. Then, in the blink of an eye, Alice threw the knife and hit it exactly between the eyes. The pig fell over dead. Alice walked over and pulled the knife out of its head. It was pointless to waste too much time on it, it wasn't one of the worst perpetrators of her pain. Five murders already. She chuckled. What fun this was turning out to be! Alice opened the door and walked out into the rest of her adventure. 


	5. Massacre in the Meadow

V. Massacre in the Meadow  
  
The forest was starting to give way to sunny fields and Alice grinned in anticipation. She was remembering her last trip to Wonderland and knew who her next victims would be. She giggled gleefully and continued walking until she reached a meadow with a large brick wall at the edge of it. Sure enough there was a big white egg dressed in blue suspenders with yellow buttons and a ridiculous red checked tie. A few feet off to the left were 10 giggling, idiotic, flowers planted in a straight line. Every so often they left their places and formed a different pattern, then went back into the line. Alice strode across the field.  
  
* * *  
  
Humpty Dumpty was sitting on his wall. "Everyday the same thing," he thought grimly. "Some silly little girl comes and I fall off the wall. I get cracked up and all the kings' horses and the kings' men come and carry me off. My cracks get patched up and hidden by my clothes or white base. What a fun job I have. And now here comes another one." The flowers giggled again. "And there's another thing." He thought. Humpty's main course of thought was how much things sucked for him and he was such a great guy. "Those stupid flowers, how annoying they are. Just a bunch of ninnies planted for eye candy. Why did the Queen have them planted by me? It's not fair. A great brain like me having to suffer through endless days of pain and dim bulbs. It's a crime and a shame." He was already in full whine mode.  
  
He looked at the girl coming across the field. "Odd, she's striding so purposefully. Most of them are skittish and terrified. And now that I think about it I've seen that little girl before. It's Alice! Now how did she get back here? She's been here before, gone through the growing up process." Humpty was confused, and this shocked him. He was never confused! This upset him. "Stupid girl. How could anyone have to do this twice? She must be very immature." Finding an explanation made him feel intelligent again but he was still furious with her for making him feel stupid. "I'm really going to give it to her. I'll be at my rudest." He thought, sniffing haughtily. His nose was perpetually stuck in the air, it seemed. He'd lowered his eyes to tiny, snobbish slits. This was why he didn't notice that Alice was covered in blood and that her eyes had a wild, crazed look. It had been blank at first, until she got closer. He also didn't pay too much attention to her stride, which was not immature. He had conveniently forgotten his surprise earlier when he noticed she wasn't skittering about. Being so stuck up has it's price, he may have thought he was intelligent, observant, and above everyone else, but he was very, very wrong. And he was about to pay for it.  
  
He impatiently waited a few minutes before risking a side-glance at his approaching "victim." What he saw made him loose his composure for the second time that day. He almost fell off the wall too early. At first glance it looked like she had dyed red streaks in her hair and got the dye all over her clothes. He opened his eyes wider as he realized it was blood. She was holding an axe, that he thought once might have been a bird. Her eyes were distant, large, and wild looking. He was very frightened. "She's had a terrible accident of course, that's it. She's come here for help because she knows I'm smart. The axe must be one of those birds and it died in the accident. She's bringing it around so we can bury it." His thoughts were almost incoherent they were so idiotic but as usual he ignored how much of an idiot he sounded like. "Besides, even if she is an axe-murder she can't get me up here! It's impossible." Another moronic thought. Murders, the psychopaths, cannot be stopped by the fact that the intended victim is sitting on a wall. Alice was almost as tall as the wall anyway; it wasn't as high as he believed it to be. It made him feel important to think that he could fall from a great distance like that and still be mostly intact.  
  
Humpty was still gibbering to himself when she reached him. She looked up but said nothing. His gibbering turned into a sort of keening whine mixed with blubbering. Alice raised the axe, but used the blunt side, as she smashed the egg right in the middle of his "stomach." The shell caved in and he flew of the wall, smashing into a tree at the edge of the meadow. The flowers, who had been paying no attention at all, looked up at this. Humpty was pretty much crushed. He moaned, but he knew he wasn't going to last long. On this he was right. Before he knew it Alice had crossed the field. She raised the axe and smashed him with the blunt end, again and again. Soon he was just a mess. "You deserve it, you stuck-up fat bastard!" Alice didn't shout this time, but there was a lot of hate and malice in her voice.  
  
The flowers had been watching, stunned, until they saw Alice finish her job and look at them. Then they started to scream. Rose picked up Rose Bud and tried to run, pulling their roots out of the ground. The rest of the flowers followed suit. Alice strode toward them; in their panic they were going nowhere. She swung her axe, but she swung it low. Instead of chopping off their heads she was chopping just above the roots, leaving them unable to run. "Look at all the pretty flowers I've picked." Alice said, in an oddly child-like voice. "What a wonderful bouquet." Rose Bud was crying and the other flowers were either groaning in pain or screaming in terror. They didn't understand. This wasn't supposed to happen! What was going on? "I think I'll play a little game." Alice said. She went over to the daisy. She grabbed hold of one of the petals and pulled it out. The daisy screamed in pain. "I'll kill you." Alice pulled another. "I'll kill you not. I'll kill you. I'll kill you not. I'll kill you. I'll kill you not. I'll kill you!!!!" Alice ended triumphantly. She raised the axe and chopped the daisy's head off.  
  
Then she headed over to a dandelion. She placed one foot on what would pass for a neck and placed another foot upon the back of the dandelion's head. It gasped as all the air rushed out of it. "Mama had a baby and its head popped off." Alice said, repeating a childhood rhyme. She pushed her foot down as hard as she could against the dandelion's head and it popped off. It skittered a few feet and landed by Rose Bud. She started to cry. Alice took no notice of this; instead she headed toward the tiger lily. The tiger lily saw her coming and started trying to squirm away. Alice grabbed her by the petals, stopping her retreat. Holding the lily at arms length she raised the axe and chopped it neatly down the middle. This started a whole round of screams and cries but Alice just kept methodically going on to the next flower. It was a violet, and it had fainted. In fact she thought it might be dead. "That doesn't matter." She thought. "I can still make her pay." Alice stepped on the back of the violet's head, mashing it into the ground and effectively smothering the fainted flower and crushing its stem at the same time.  
  
Alice walked over to a pansy. True to its name it had also fainted. In fact, it was dead. From the shock, a sort of flower heart attack. Alice ripped it in half and then moved on. The next was a tulip. Alice grabbed both sides of its petals and started to pull before the stunned flower could do anything. She pulled as hard as she could, ripping its head in half. It was a rather unimportant flower; she was saving all her fury toward them for Rose. Next were two Queen Anne's Lace. Their leaves were around each other as they tried to limp to safety. Alice caught up with them quickly. She chopped off their heads, just below the petals. Then she held them up to herself as if she had those feathery headdresses and tails some Las Vegas showgirls wore. As quick as that flight of whimsy came it ended and she threw the blossoms down and advanced on Rose and Rose Bud. Rose Bud was crying and Rose actually looked like she was praying. "Surely she knows there is no God, especially here." Alice thought. Stony faced, Alice pulled Rose Bud from Rose's arm. Rose didn't even protest, in fact it seemed as if she didn't notice. Rose Bud was crying and shuddering. She started to squirm a bit but Alice quickly put a stop to that by twisting her head around completely backwards.  
  
She threw the little body beside and knelt before Rose. She stared at her for a moment, and then sat upon Rose's body so that she couldn't get away. It really didn't matter, Rose seemed a million miles away, appealing to some higher power that was not going to help her. Slowly, one by one, Alice pulled off all her petals leaving Rose bald. Then she pulled off all her leaves. Rose was crying now, quietly. She was obviously in great pain but for some reason she wasn't screaming. Alice got raging mad and let out all her rage on Rose. "SCREAM YOU BITCH!!!!! SCREAM!!!! NO ONE'S GONNA HELP YOU!!! PAY FOR YOUR SINS YOU BITCH!!!!!" Rose did scream then, as Alice ripped at her with the knife that she had removed from her apron. Alice's face was red and her voice sounded hoarse from screaming. She got into Rose's dying face, filling her vision. "DAMN YOU ALL!!! DAMN YOU ALL FOR RUINING MY LIFE!!!!! NO ONE EVER CARED AND YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD COME IN AND CHANGE IT ALL??? DAMN YOU!!!!!!!!" Alice stabbed the knife through both of Rose's eyes, and then scratched at her face. Long after Rose was dead she slowed down, than stopped. Then she staggered to her feet. "What was that all about? Rose wasn't the biggest perpetrator? Why did I attack her like that?" For a brief moment a troubled look crossed Alice's face, then it was gone. "No problem. She paid and I got to have a little fun. No matter." Alice brushed at her apron, as if it was only a little rumpled and in need of smoothing instead of drenched in blood and various other a sundry items. After a moments pause to glance back at the massacre in the meadow she went back to the path and continued on her journey. 


End file.
